Thank you random stranger for the BandAids, I promise I don't have any blood diseases

For a short summary of my runs before Thursday: Tuesday I ran to downtown Boulder so I could get a picture of Pearl Street for our very own Pearl Girl.

Hopping on a Tuesday, there was a sax player, a juggler and plenty of shoppers.

The run itself wasn't horribly exciting. My legs did feel pretty nice, I'm blaming the taper. I even went a little fast, caught a few glimpses of Garmin Jr with lap paces under 9mm! That's fast for me in ultra-mode!

And to prove I do get read faced and sweaty when I run later in the day, here is a picture after the run. (Sorry for the camera blur.)

Wednesday I planned to meet CompulsiveRunner at Teller Farm trail after work. Last week I got this great idea that, in my last two weeks before the 50K, I would do all my runs after work. I figure I'll be running into the early afternoon during the race so I want to get used to the heat a bit. Well, Wednesday it was 90. But a little heat won't stop CR and I, right? Right? Well, not CR at least.

We got started and it didn't take long before I was really feeling it. Sure it was a little hilly but I just felt bad. Worse than the hills should have felt. Maybe 2 miles in, not only was I slowing and walking a bit (and I felt bad that I was slowing CR down because she is a beast and was running like it was nothing!) but my stomach just felt off. We cut the run short and the way back I just wanted to be done. I like running with CR but that was not a good day for a run.

This makes it look like it was a nice flat shaded trail, it was not. This was a very rare spot in the trail.

I should have taken a picture of the huge field we ran through with hip high corn.

We also had some puddle crossings. (Sorry if this was creepy taking a picture of you CR, I was walking and my little legs couldn't keep up!)

So that brings me to Thursday. The run started out nice enough. I was actually feeling pretty good. I don't know why it made so much of a difference, but the 84* heat didn't feel nearly as bad. I was trotting along down the bike path at a nice pace and I guess I stopped paying attention because I was feeling so good. My legs feeling good has been rare during ultra training.

Anyways, that last paragraph just sounds too good right? Where do the BandAids alluded to in the title come from?

I fell. Not really all that surprising. I'm really not sure how many times I've fallen in the last few months. Here's an example, and another one, and one more. I don't really feel like finding others, but I'd bet I've probably mentioned a fall in my bloops at least a dozen times. My clumsiness gland is overactive or something.

And immediately, I hear a man yell "did you just fall?!" Geez guy, don't sound so surprised. I yelled "yeah" back but still was a little shaken. When I looked up I saw a guy in the house right next to the path (probably only 10 feet away) looking over his privacy fence.

It went about like this.

Guy:"You ok?"

Me: "Yeah, I'll be fine, just need a minute"

Guy: "Need a bandaid or something?"

Me: (looks at knee, scraped a little, I've ran with much worse) "um..." (looks at elbow, scraped A LOT) "actually, maybe, could I have a bandaid or two?"

The guy's wife was outside then and told me to "come on in."

I thought "wait, you're not going to hand me some bandaids over the fence, like the neighbor in Home Improvement or something? Should I be going in a random person's house? This goes against my training as a kid. Don't get the in the strange person's van! They don't have candy or puppies or anything fun!"

In my dazed and confused state, my judgement was affected and my ex-cop dad's voice in my head did not come through. So in their house I went. The woman took me to the bathroom sink and got me some bandaids. I put a few on my knee and tried to put as many as I could on the elbow (they weren't sticking very well.) She even helped put some on my elbow. I couldn't help but think that this must be really strange, helping a bloody stranger while your dinner is on the grill. She even took a towel and tried to soak up some of the blood from my elbow so the bandaids would stick better. All I thought was "you really want my blood on your towel?" But I didn't say anything. I almost said "well, I promise I don't have any blood borne diseases or anything!" which I would have said as a joke (and also the truth) but I wasn't sure how that would be taken so I stayed quiet, apologized for that being so gross and thanked them a few times for the help. Really nice people. Really glad they did have a basement dungeon "where the bandaids were kept."

That was almost right at mile 1. I finished 4.5 miles (less than the 5 or 6 I was planning on but oh well.) Surprisingly, that run had about the most consistent splits I've had in a while.

I'll spare you the bloody pictures (apparently some people don't like them?! ) but here are the bandaid pics.

This is what I was left with post-run.

They were already falling off so I re-bandaided them.

And now I need to stop at the store tomorrow, just for more bandaids. But I'll go into my 50K with some scrapes and bruises. Wouldn't want anyone thinking I wasn't a complete clutz!

I'm also glad they didn't have a basement dungeon "where the bandaids are kept"! It's funny how when you need help you assume (this time rightfully) that the person helping you is a good person. Because most people are.

Wow, that is a lot of bandaids! Yay for nice strangers. I fell earlier this week but somehow managed not to scrape myself (the mud I fell in probably helped with that but I was running on the sidewalk!)

I'm also glad they didn't have a basement dungeon "where the bandaids are kept"! It's funny how when you need help you assume (this time rightfully) that the person helping you is a good person. Because most people are.

My dad is (probably certifiably) paranoid, so I usually question things like this, but luckily most people are pretty nice!

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